My Saturday Dog Transport Experience

I wanted to share with you my volunteer experience from yesterday.

When I adopted Daisey, C. did my home visit. She's a terrifically interesting person, and I'm so happy to have met her. She's on her second career, going to nursing school after serving in a challenging career in environmental work. Obviously since she does home visits, she is an animal lover. She also participates in dog transports. She was telling about dog transporting when she was visiting, and I offered to help sometime. Well that 'sometime' was yesterday.

These animal transports, consisting mostly of dogs/puppies, but some cats/kittens as well, are designed to get animals from point A to point B--with point B being a foster or forever (adopter) home or a breed-specific shelter. Many of these animals were rescued from pounds that would otherwise have euthanized these animals. In fact, my recently adopted English Setter, Daisey, was rescued from a pound. She was in her shelter (where she was well cared for) for nine months. She went to a permanent home. She was returned because she was digging in their yard. (I hope that you are rolling your eyes and saying, "Oh Pleeeeeezzzzzzz").

The I-95 corridor (east coast) is one of the main routes. Saturdays are transport days, and there are many different transports. Several transports use the same drop off points. In Fredericksburg, my end destination, I saw at least 3 other vehicles awaiting their charges from other transports. The transports are divided into legs, and a number of volunteers must be gathered. It is an effort to organize, and ours seemed to be planned with the precision of a successful military campaign. If we were to dial back about 150 years, these are the same types of folks that would have been organizing the underground railway for slaves.

When the crappy stuff happens and you see the nutty folks in the news that make you think that humanity has fallen off the cliff, I hope that you'll slap yourself back to reality and realize its the nutty folks that make headlines and sell newspapers. The people who work day in and day out for a cause that speaks to their passions--such causes that make this harsh world a bit easier for this earth's inhabitants (people, animals, environment)--do so under the radar screen.

Our transport was as follows:

• 15 dogs (unbelievably sweet, hard-to-imagine-they-do-not-have-a-home dogs)
  
• 7 legs
• 11 volunteer drivers--that doesn't include the other folks organizing and other help along the way
• 526 miles from NC to NJ
• 10 hours
  

Along the way, the dogs have to be exercised, watered and relieved. Because of the commonality of these drop off points, great care must be taken to ensure that puppies are not exposed to the ground where horrid illnesses could be lurking. Moreover, each adult dog is watered independently in separate bowls. Naturally, all feces is picked up immediately. Newspaper, water jugs, paper bowls, paper towels, hand sanitizer and baby wipes are part of the tool kit. Patience, love and a dexterity go a long way in helping these animals have a pleasant journey. A biscuit or two provides a welcome treat for the long ride. But, too many biscuits could spell trouble!

I had the privilege of transporting these two sweeties, Betsey and Zana.

Betsey

Zana

They were unbelievably well-behaved. I removed Betsey from her transport, as she was clearly stressed to go back in (baying!) after being walked. She settled down immediately on my front seat, nestled in her gray, microfleece blanket. Certainly softer than the transport. Zana settled quietly in the back seat. Both were securely tethered to the handles above the door (that people would use if they needed some extra stabilization during scary driving). No one has had to use those handles in my car, and I am glad to find a use for them. I turned up the air conditioner, so they would be comfortable. My toes were a little cold, but I wanted my guests to feel pampered.

Now, did you notice those Liz Taylor eyes on little Betsey? Well she looked at me soulfully with those eyes during the drive before settling in. I had my right hand on her, scratching her ears and rubbing her body. She was very well cared for, as her fur was clean and silky soft. Before she settled into "winkie land" (sleep) in the front seat, she groomed a bit. To my delight, she then started making what I call "monkey faces"--where a dog takes both paws and reaches behind her ears and rubs forward on her face toward her nose. Greta used is the only dog that I've had that ever did this, and she did it when she was happy. She would also make a happy, low vocalization when doing this. She taught Lucy (that old bad girl!) how to do it. It's funny how dogs model each other's behavior--for good or naught! While Betsey was doing this she was playfully biting on her right ear. It was quite cute, and I fell in love with her at that moment.

Zana was equally sweet, but she was in the back seat. She was a young dog, 10 months old. She was interested in sleeping and did so immediately. Both had impeccable car manners and were a joy to be with.

Also this week (how timely) I caught a bit of a documentary called Shelter Dogs If you are interested, you can learn about this film here. It was a very intimate portrait of the staff at this shelter and the difficult decisions that they must make regarding the fate of their charges. You may need a hankie.

Whatever your cause and passion, I hope that you'll take a moment to renew your commitment to it in a way that suits your time, energy and pocketbook. What I did yesterday was a small commitment of time, but it was one of the most rewarding few hours of time I've spent doing something for others. And if you are an animal lover, and think that you would enjoy doing something like this, I'm sure that you could contact your local animal shelter to get hooked up with an opportunity.

Thanks for stopping by.